“I improve by trying new things, by challenging myself in different events”

The French swimmer didn’t hang around. For his first individual race in the finals of the American university championship, Léon Marchand won the title in the 500 yards by crushing the competition and beating his own record.

Howls of encouragement coming down from the stands and sparks in the swimming pool: the Indianapolis Natatorium where the university finals (the NCAAs) take place was white-hot by Léon Marchand’s new exploit. He won the 500 yards by breaking his own record (4’2”31), improving it by almost 4 seconds. He spoke to franceinfo after the race.

franceinfo: What is your reaction to seeing the performance achieved?

Leon Marchand: I really did everything to have the best time possible. I had achieved the previous record a few weeks ago and I wasn’t as well prepared as I am now. It’s true that this time is crazy. I set a lot of pace in the first half of the race, it was painful but in the end it was quite pleasant.

Did you have the feeling that you could achieve something great?

This is how I improve, by trying new things, by trying to challenge myself in different events. I’ve been doing a lot of crawl training lately, my kicks have been better. So yeah, I was prepared for that. I wanted to beat this record again. It was a really fun race.

That’s already two records in two days of competition. The pace is already very strong…

These are important races for me with a lot at stake. I don’t have many at stake this year, there are these university finals and, of course, the Paris Olympics. It’s good preparation for me. It’s an environment that I love with a lot of atmosphere and energy. I also swim for others, for my team. I didn’t really know what my limit was, it was cool to do that.

However, the start of the season was complicated for you. How did you recover to reach this level?

It’s definitely not the best year for me. The first semester was very complicated, I was often sick, I had wisdom teeth operated on. I resumed training and had to start again in December while the others were much further along in their preparation. I was training alone and the sensations were not good. I tried to improve every week, to try different things.